I very much agree. He made the top 100 guitarists of all time in a recent Rolling Stone issue, but I thought he was still considerably underranked still.

There is a video of him joining Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, Dhani Harrison in a live rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and his guitar solo is amazing.

That's a great find, Ronnie. And you're right, it will get taken down before long due to copyright issues. But I already downloaded it .

If I have to guess to why he's underrated, I'll chalk it up to this. If you mention Santana or Hendrix to most folks, their first thought (probably only one) is their guitars.

Mention Prince to most folks, maybe they'll mention his symbol deal or maybe his name-changing melodrama or maybe him writing "slave" on his cheek during his feud with Warner Bros., or him wearing assless chaps, or the Jehovah's Witness connection or maybe those SNL skits mocking his eccentric reputation, whatever. Point is, his guitar work would probably be very low on such a list. Plus being tied to the hip forever with 80s MTV pop, namely Michael Jackson and Madonna, does him absolutely no favors either in that department.

Very well put, Lilo. I've been a fan forever, yet I could never summarize the guy like you just did .

Thanks PB. I've been a fan since 1999 back in high school. Had to listen to that album with door closed.

Oh, I get it. That's a deliberate pun about the song 1999. Because I KNOW you were out of high school by then. Now if you tell me that you were driving a Little Red Corvette at the time, I'd have to say you're full of shit .

We always hear so much about the best guitarist, best drummer, best band and best vocalist. But how about the greatest bassists? In your guys opinion, who are some of the best bass players past or present?

For my money, and I'm no expert by any means, it's John Entwistle of the Who. I'm guessing a bass solo was virtually unheard of when he pulled it off brilliantly in My Generation.

Jack Bruce of Cream and Bootsy Collins are often mentioned among the best, and I agree. James Jamerson, who played with Marvin Gaye, gets much deserved credit too.

Paul McCartney's bass playing in the Beatles may be overshadowed by his vocals and song writing ability, but he stands firmly with the the best of the bassists. His bass playing on the Lennon tunes, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion and She's So Heavy is sublime. His bassline in another Lennon song, Come Together, may be the most iconic bassline in rock history.

Adele’s second album, 21, smashed the 4 million sales barrier after her BRITs performance last week and went on to bag the Number 1 spot on the Official Albums Chart for its 21st non-consecutive week at the summit. It has now sold nearly 61,000 more copies than The King Of Pop’s classic 1987 album, Bad.

Released on January 24, 2011, 21 has spent 57 weeks on the Official Albums Chart and has never left the Top 10. In just over a year it has sold over 4,020,000 copies, making it not only the biggest selling album of the 21st Century, but also the eighth biggest selling album of all time. If 21’s post-BRITs momentum continues, in the next few weeks it could also eclipse sales of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album Dark Side Of the Moon (7) and Dire Straits’ 1985 album, Brothers In Arms (6).

This week, the late Whitney Houston becomes the first woman to place three albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart at the same time.

"Whitney: the Greatest Hits" holds at No. 2 with 174,000 (down less than 1% according to Nielsen SoundScan), "The Bodyguard" soundtrack jumps 38-6 (47,000; up 176%) and "Whitney Houston" motors 37-9 (30,000; up 72%).

A Doo-Wop Shop Prepares to Close, Signaling the End of a Fading Genre
By PETER APPLEBOME
CLIFTON, N.J. — The end is near for Ronnie I’s Clifton Music after 40 years on Main Avenue — yet another victim of the Internet, the economy, and changing tastes in music and shopping.

But this time it is not just a store that is dying, four years after its founder did, but perhaps a whole genre of music as well. For the aging fans of the group harmony of the Harptones and the Heartbeats, the Orioles and the Ravens, the Five Keys and the Five Satins, the passing of Clifton Music is a reminder that rock ’n’ roll may never die, but one hyperbolic sect, the fading kingdom of doo-wop, just might.

In a world where fans and the remaining performers are almost invariably in their 60s and 70s, or older, no one did more to keep it alive than Ronnie Italiano, a beverage company delivery man turned doo-wop dynamo. He ran the store, which carried only doo-wop, and put out around 150 CDs, either compilations or originals he produced and recorded, and at least 50 LPs and more than 100 45s. He formed an organization, the United in Group Harmony Association, with 2,000 members at its peak, that became the community square for fans and put on 354 monthly doo-wop shows.

His efforts, and those of others, will provide a permanent historical record, whether on dusty liner notes or on YouTube videos, that augments iconic songs like “Rama Lama Ding Dong” by the Edsels or “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins. But fans and collectors say that as a business, a living tradition and a part of American entertainment, doo-wop seems destined to go the way of Clifton Music.

“This music is going when we do,” said Val Shively, owner of R & B Records in Upper Darby, Pa., who is considered the leading doo-wop collector. “Everyone is old or dying, and no one new is coming up to replace them. If it has 10 years left, that’s a lot in my opinion.”

Fellow fans say Mr. Italiano’s biggest achievement may have been to bring back aging groups — the Four Fellows, Lillian Leach and the Mellows, the Solitaires — for a final curtain call, with nearly all of the 354 shows recorded on VHS tapes and DVDs.

But Mr. Italiano died of cancer at age 67 in 2008, the group harmony organization died with him, and his widow, Sandra, after struggling to keep the store going, has sold it to someone who wants to sell eyeglasses there. Clifton Music, with its faded green linoleum, its colored wax 45s and 33s hanging from the pressed-tin ceiling, the old Don Mattingly poster and Ronnie I’s silver and turquoise show jackets hanging in the rear, is scheduled to close sometime this month.

“There’s no replacement for Ronnie I; everyone knows that,” Ms. Italiano said. “So I’m sad because this is Ronnie’s legacy, but I’m relieved to have the financial burden off my shoulders.”

A product of urban life and street-corner singers, white and black, the music boomed in the 1950s and early ’60s. About 200 to 300 45s were released every week from 1955 to 1962....

Just heard on the radio that Blender Magazine ranked "We Built This City" by Starship as the worst song ever made.